Achievement Oriented: Developing Positive Academic Identities for Girl Students at an Urban School

Abstract

The link between noncognitive skills and achievement is well established. There is much less evidence on how these skills are developed and transmitted to students, especially as it relates to girls that attend nonelite schools in non-Western settings. Drawing on insights from girl students attending an urban school in Ghana, this paper illustrates the role of school contexts in facilitating the development of noncognitive skills, namely, achievement-oriented identities—positive beliefs in one’s own ability and the translation of those beliefs into realizable actions. These identities act as useful tools for navigating the gender-specific challenges that impede girls’ abilities to achieve. These findings have implications for research on gender, noncognitive skills, and educational achievement in developing and developed societies.